This Week's Chuck Lorre Vanity Cards Are Not in Response to Angus T. Jones, Say Insiders

Thursday

Nov 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2012 at 10:18 AM

TV Guide

Don't read too much into Thursday night's Chuck Lorre vanity cards at the end of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. That's the word from insiders close to the show, who are concerned that viewers and others might misread this week's cards as a response to this week's Angus T. Jones flap.

In reality, the vanity card that aired on Thursday night behind both Lorre shows is the same one that ran on Monday night at the end of Mike and Molly. That card was written by Lorre and delivered for air during the week of November 19 - long before AngusGate.

Lorre will sometimes use one card across all three episodes of his shows in a given week, and this week happened to be the case. Given that timeline, insiders warn not to confuse this week's headlines with what Lorre wrote. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," the source says, "and sometimes a card is just a card."

Angus T. Jones Calls Two and a Half Men "Filth," Urges Viewers to Stop Watching

Adding to potential confusion: In a complete coincidence, this week's Lorre card mentions God. Jones' comments, in which he condemned Two and a Half Men and said he wanted off the show, came during a video the young actor made for the religious organization Forerunner Chronicles.

"I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth," Jones said in the video. Later, he issued a statement apologizing to Lorre and others connected to the show.

Angus T. Jones Apologizes for Blasting Two and a Half Men

Since he created Dharma & Greg in 1997, Lorre has famously used his vanity card - usually a logo of a producer's production company, flashed at the end of an episode - to write essays of various lengths. Lorre recently put together a coffee table book collection of his vanity cards, What Doesn't Kill Us, Makes Us Bitter, which Simon & Schuster released on October 30. Here's this week's card, which could eventually appear in the next edition of Lorre's book:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #400

I've been told that if you change your mind, you change the world - or at least the way you experience it. Let's take a moment to examine that. The presumption is, if you thought the world was a hostile, ugly place filled with awful people doing awful things, that is what you'd see. Your mind would naturally seek out confirmation for its preconceived ideas (e.g., if you're intent on buying a red car, as you go about your day you'll see lots of red cars). If, however, you were able to sincerely change your mind and see that we are all God in drag, that we are the conscious aspects of a perfect universe which had to create us so we could bear witness and stand in awe before its loving magnificence, then that is the soul-shaking reality you'd be greeted with each and every moment of each and every day. In other words, it is entirely our choice as to what kind of world we live in. With a simple decision, we can suffer in the darkness or play in the light. We can be angry, frightened and enslaved, or loving, joyous and free.

I know. It's a toughie.

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